Posts from — July 2005

However, Paul Glastris, posting at Political Animal, quotes the long version from more than two millennia ago found in the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides.

While Herodotos [circa 484-425 BCE] is called the Father of History for his work on the Persian Wars, and for transforming the meaning of the word historia from simply “research”, to its modern meaning; Thucydides [circa 460-400 BCE] is often credited with bringing more objectivity and less mythology to the field.

My private view is that Herodotos provided us with some justification for the claim that “history is written by the victors”, while Thucydides gave us the “elegy” on truth in time of war. These are my private views and there is certainly no lack of PhDs based on disagreeing with one, or both points of view.

For more on this absurdity I can recommend Jingo by Terry Pratchett, published in 1998.

The Russians believe they have contained the outbreak, but if migratory flocks are carrying the disease, there is no good way of preventing to spread to ever wider regions. Migratory birds were suspected in a recent outbreak in rural China, and the same infected flocks probably continued north into Siberia.

This would indicate that some of the migratory species are carriers of the disease, as they would normally die if infected and be unable to fly north.

It’s a good thing that the US has strengthened its public health system in reaction to 9/11 and the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction…never mind.

Clifton’s definition requires:

• Minimum duration, even for event-based blogs, of at least a week
• Commitment from the author to engage and respond to the audience
• Periodic short posts in reverse chronological order with permanent URLs
• Ability to take and display comments
• RSS feed so users can subscribe to them without coming to the site

He says there won’t be any blogs on the BBC site until they can get the software that supports these features.

His article shows one of the lacks, as you have to scroll down past a couple of things before you can find his comments on blogs.

I find it interesting that he feels that to be a true blog there has to be interaction with the readers. Apparently, coming from old media, he feels that the interactive component is a signature feature of the true blog.

I would note that the BBC World Service constantly solicits e-mail and text message comments on their stories and read them as they come in, unlike the NPR once a week letters segment and the general lack of any type of viewer commenting on television.

Well, they gave us 180 days, but I wouldn’t ask for a return of the damage deposit. Apparently President Karimov was annoyed by American officials, who talked about spreading democracy and didn’t condemn the UN for aiding several hundred Uzbekis fleeing the repression of demonstrators to escape his grasp. Even if they didn’t mean it, it was annoying to a government that doesn’t have a problem with boiling detainees and gunning down demonstrators. Like most brutal dictators, Karimov believes that people don’t approve wholeheartedly of everything he does are against him.

Rumsfeld’s recent trip was supposed to mend fences, but it obviously didn’t impress the Uzbek government. I doubt the US can match the bribes offered by the Afghani drug lords, nor are there alternative facilities in the area capable of handling large cargo aircraft. Too bad nobody planned for this possibility.

Let’s review the known facts:

Ms. Miller is the Kool-Aid Kween, the number one supporter of the Bush plan to invade Iraq, and the number one supporter of Bushevik claims about Weapons of Mass Destruction. She has an association with Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, that goes back a decade. Chalabi would be a direct conduit between Miller and Douglas Feith, the head of the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon created to provide alternative intelligence regarding Iraq, as they are old friends.

Miller being embedded with the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha in Iraq can only be explained by major interference by someone like Feith, because military intelligence is not in the habit of having reporters tag along on missions.

Valerie Plame was a CIA analyst working on the WMD desk. The only people outside of the CIA who would be aware of her existence would be those senior officials in the White House, Pentagon, and State Department who would be considered “consumers” for the “product” she was working on. She would probably, occasionally, attend briefings for top officials to explain points in the reports coming from her office.

There is no way for Miller to legally discover Ms. Plame’s identity. Given that a top secret clearance would be required to attend the briefings at which Ms. Plame would be present, it is obvious that the revelation of her position was a violation of US espionage laws.

Douglas Feith has resigned “to spend more time with his family” after his deputy, Larry Franklin, was felt to have been overly enthusiastic by the FBI in his support for Israel by allegedly providing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC] with too much information.

There are reports that the INC was the source of much of the bad intelligence about Iraq in the run up to the war, and that Chalabi was overly friendly with Iranian intelligence.

What you end up with a group of people for whom “the ends justify the means” and think they are better informed and more intelligent than the people who get to make decisions. These are people who think their resumés are true, for a given value of “true”.

Many, possibly most, assume that there was only one leak. Given the track record of this administration it is safer to assume that there were multiple leaks for various, mostly private, reasons.

It is very likely that Ms. Miller learned of Plame from Feith, and didn’t write about it, because Novak filed an article before she could. Ms. Miller is not known for sharing the spotlight, or for helping others without a clear vision of some benefit for her.

Members of the White House Iraq Group [Karl Rove, Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, Jim Wilkinson, and Nicholas Callo] would have been cleared for briefings by Ms. Plame, with Stephen Hadley the most probably attendee as deputy National Security Adviser.

Novak and Cooper would have received the leak from WHIG, which was created as an agitprop operation to promote the Iraq War. Logically the group created to promote the war would be the entity used to attack any reports that made the war less likely.

I would like to make it clear that everything I have written is openly available on the Internet and involved no “special sources”. The pattern has been available for anyone who took the trouble to look and has minimal skills with Google™. The problem most people have in understanding the Busheviks is assuming that there is some form of “genius” involved, when they are simply arrogant.

Andante is contemplating Ms. Miller at Collective Sigh, while Hesiod posting at American Street is annoyed at Mickey Kaus for stealing his idea about a possible Miller interview of Ms. Plame.

Sorry, Hesiod, but Ms. Plame was a career operative, and certainly wouldn’t have talked to Judith Miller. Ms. Plame would know that Ms. Miller lacked the clearance to know of her existence.

[™ Kevin Drum]

Festus, Mrs. D, Tonto

We aren’t telling.

[Edit: These are the prime suspects in the appearance of a former Norway rat on my Mother’s front step. I know it’s a gift, but that is not how my Mother views it.]

Friday Ark

Responding to some reports of reaction to the London bombing: “Cherie Booth QC warned the government against an overly authoritarian reaction which would ‘cheapen our right to call ourselves a civilized nation.'”

Ms. Booth’s husband, Tony Blair, is a British politician, while she is a noted human rights attorney, who made her comments at an international conference in Malaysia.

…she said: “Nothing I say here could possibly be construed as making light of those horrible acts of violence or of the responsibility imposed on the UK and other governments to keep the public safe, or of the difficult and dangerous task performed by the police and intelligence services.”

But she added: “At the same time it is all too easy for us to respond to such terror in a way which undermines commitment to our most deeply held values and convictions and which cheapens our right to call ourselves a civilized nation.”

I find the use of her first name alone to be odd: she isn’t a rock star.

According to her bio:

Booth became a barrister in 1976 and Queen’s Counsel in 1995. In 1999 she was appointed a Recorder (a permanent part-time judge) in the County Court and Crown Court. She is Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, and Governor of the London School of Economics and the Open University. She is a founding member of Matrix Chambers, London, from which she continues to practice as a barrister.

When you throw in the fact that she is married to the British Prime Minister, she certainly deserves some common courtesy.

The Philadelphia Citizens Crime Commission, with the help of a Philadelphia blogger, have launched a reward fund for information leading to Latoyia Figueroa, a 24-year-old pregnant mother of one who has been missing since July 18. The Philadelphia Citizens Crime Commission, with the help of a Philadelphia blogger, have launched a reward fund for information leading to Latoyia Figueroa, a 24-year-old pregnant mother of one who has been missing since July 18.

Richard “Cranium” of All Spin Zone, a Philly blogger is staying on the story and helping to raise a reward fund.

In addition to fund raising he has also been promoting an e-mail campaign and asking people to mention this case on their blogs. It appears he has had some success in raising the profile of this case, which is good news, but there are a lot of missing people that no one, other than their family and friends, ever hears about.

Work on hurricane repairs that has been paid for is not being done in a “timely fashion” and I’ve been drafted to supervise “the friend” my landlord hired to do it.

What with one thing or another, blogging will come in fits and starts.

Yes, there are rip currents. Yes, rip currents can be dangerous if you shouldn’t be in the water in the first place.

A group is trying to convince the Walton County commission to provide lifeguards on the beaches. Walton is the county directly to the east of me. The advocates claim, mistakenly, that Walton makes millions of dollars from the tourists and should provide lifeguards.

Walton provides the state-wide colored flag system to warn of water conditions, but they don’t have the money to hire lifeguards. The county is not wealthy and the development along the beaches is new. The people who live in the northern three-quarters of the county are not going to agree to an increase in their taxes to pay for lifeguard service. The people who live on the Gulf know better than to swim when there are rip currents.

I have swum in the Gulf and have been caught in rip currents. Rip currents are a real pain and require a lot of swimming you probably didn’t want to do, but the Gulf is warm salt water and it is not a great feat to float until you are clear of the current and then go back to shore with the waves.

Lifeguards aren’t a replacement for common sense. If there are large red flags on the beach, don’t go into the water.

He was a force in British blues and well known enough that the “Rolling Stones” were the opening act for some of his concerts in the 1960s. Elton John was a sideman in one of Baldry’s bands and he influenced many of the greats of British pop music.

He was an acquired taste that was occasionally acerbic, but his music was a lot of fun.

The Downing Street Minutes make it obvious that Bush wanted a war regardless of the cost, and the Plame case demonstrates the total lack of regard for national security that characterizes these deranged amateurs.

There is a very definite difference between a President nominating someone to a position in the executive branch, and nominating a judge. The President should be given some leeway in selecting the people who will work for him/her. These are people who will be implementing the policies of the President, so I would restrict objections to competence and criminality.

When it comes to judges the bar should be raised considerably. Federal judges receive lifetime appointments and constitute a force for checking the power of the other two branches. It is reasonable to expect greater degrees of competence for the higher courts than the lower, and the Senate should be an equal partner in the process. The executive and legislative branches should achieve consensus on judges.

The President is elected to head the executive branch only. There are no elections for Federal judges. Read the Constitution, it’s in there.

William Crutchfield, a 60-year-old electrical contractor with health problems, shot his postman in Snellville, Georgia. After the shooting he drove to the police station and confessed.

He wants a life sentence in prison where they will take care of his medical condition and provide him with the food and shelter he felt he would lose to $90,000 in medical bills.

Crutchfield worked out that shooting the postman would make it a Federal crime and he would go to the much better Federal prison system.

He felt his choices were Federal prison or living on the street. The new bankruptcy law doesn’t seem to be an option.